#romancearcs

Why Buck Buckley and Benedict Bridgerton Are the Same Man Waiting for Their Sophie

Two Men, Two Universes, One Emotional Blueprint

Here’s a theory that has been living in my head for a while now:

Buck Buckley and Benedict Bridgerton are essentially the same character.

Yes, they exist in completely different worlds — one in a modern emergency drama like 9-1-1, the other in the Regency romance universe of Bridgerton — but if you strip away the setting, the clothes, and the time period, the emotional structure of these two men is almost identical.

And the more I thought about it, the more obvious it became.

The Man Who Watches Everyone Else Find Their Direction

One of the most interesting things the show has done with Benedict Bridgerton is portray him as someone who has never truly had a direction.

Around him, everyone finds their path.

Daphne finds love. Anthony finds purpose and partnership. Colin finds identity through travel and romance. Francesca finds her own quiet version of belonging.

Slowly, the circle closes.

And Benedict is left standing in the middle of a room where everyone else has figured it out.

Buck exists in almost the same narrative position.

When Evan Buckley joins the 118, everyone seems to eventually find their person or their stability:

Hen and Karen already have it. Chimney finds it with Maddie. Bobby has Athena.

One by one, the people around Buck move forward in their lives.

And Buck is left wondering where exactly he fits.

Family Is Loud, Loving, and Not the Problem

Interestingly, neither of them lacks family.

Benedict has the chaotic, affectionate Bridgerton household.

Buck has something very similar — just chosen rather than biological.

Maddie. Chimney. The entire 118.

For Buck, that firehouse is his real family. It’s loud, protective, messy, and deeply loving in exactly the same way the Bridgertons are.

So their emotional problem is not loneliness.

It’s direction.

Everyone around them seems to know where they are going.

They don’t.

The Stage of Life Where “Knowing Yourself” Feels Like Enough

Right now, both characters are in a similar phase of life.

Benedict has discovered his sexuality, embraced it, and lives it freely without labels or shame. For a long time, that self-discovery becomes his center. It’s enough.

He convinces himself that the life he has — art, freedom, lovers, exploration — is perfectly fine as it is.

Buck has gone through something similar.

His journey toward understanding himself has been long, messy, and emotional. But now that he has begun to understand who he is, there is a moment where that realization feels like a destination.

Like maybe that’s the point.

Maybe he doesn’t need anything else right now.

And in both cases, the characters settle into a kind of emotional plateau.

Not unhappy.

Just… floating.

Why Sophie Changes Everything for Benedict

Then Sophie appears.

Sophie Beckett/Baek is powerful as a narrative device because Benedict is not looking for her.

He isn’t searching for love. He isn’t chasing a relationship. He isn’t trying to settle down.

She arrives unexpectedly.

And she completely dismantles his sense of stability.

What makes Sophie different is that she doesn’t treat him like everyone else does. Benedict is the charming Bridgerton bachelor — people flirt with him, admire him, orbit him.

Sophie doesn’t.

She challenges him. She calls him out. She tells him when he’s wrong. She sees the parts of him others don’t confront.

And that unexpected honesty becomes irresistible.

Suddenly, the man who was perfectly comfortable with his life realizes that something fundamental has shifted.

The Kind of Love That Rearranges a Life

There are moments in Benedict’s story that show this transformation perfectly.

He stops chasing pleasure the way he used to. He stops drifting from party to party. He becomes focused.

Not because he decided to change.

But because Sophie quietly changed the gravity of his world.

That’s the key to why their story works.

If Benedict had consciously decided to become a different man, it wouldn’t have happened.

But love — unexpected love — reorients him.

Why Buck’s Story Is Missing That Piece

This is where the parallel becomes fascinating.

Buck hasn’t had his Sophie yet.

And that’s why his arc still feels unfinished.

Many people argue that the answer for Buck already exists in the show — that the emotional resolution would be a romantic relationship with Eddie.

But narratively speaking, that dynamic is something Buck already knows.

It’s familiar territory.

And Sophie was never familiar territory for Benedict.

She was unexpected.

She was someone he would have never crossed paths with under normal circumstances.

She disrupted his life.

That kind of narrative disruption is exactly what Buck’s story still lacks.

The Love Story That Changes the Direction of a Character

Buck doesn’t need a relationship that fits neatly into his current life.

He needs the opposite.

Someone unexpected. Someone who challenges him. Someone who forces him into emotional waters he has never navigated before.

Someone who arrives when he isn’t looking.

In my own fanfiction universe, that person is an original character — Elara — someone Buck rescues during an accident who ends up temporarily paralyzed and with nowhere to go.

Buck offers to help her.

Everyone tells him it’s a terrible idea.

Not because it isn’t generous, but because it’s a huge emotional responsibility.

And yet he does it anyway.

Because that’s who Buck is.

And in doing so, he slowly finds himself transformed in ways he never expected.

That kind of arc mirrors exactly what Sophie does for Benedict.

The Difference Between Safe Water and Deep Water

There’s a metaphor in the Bridgerton story that perfectly captures this idea.

Benedict once says he prefers shallow water.

It’s warm. Comfortable. Easy.

Sophie replies that deep water is cold at first… but once you get used to it, you might discover things you never would have seen from the shore.

That metaphor applies beautifully to Buck’s journey.

Safe, predictable relationships are shallow water. And now Buddie it is.

They’re comfortable.

But real transformation often happens when a character dives into something unexpected — something deeper, colder, more uncertain.

Because that’s where the real discoveries lie.

Sometimes characters feel like they belong to different stories.

Different eras.

Different genres.

Buck Buckley and Benedict Bridgerton live in completely separate universes, but emotionally they are walking the same path.

Two men who thought they had already found themselves.

Two men who didn’t realize their story was still waiting for one final, unexpected chapter.

And if Buck ever meets his Sophie?